Out of Her League |Lesbian Story|

Chapter 5

After that horrible game, we all wanted to forget about it and that we'd never laid eyes on each other.

The next training, I was thinking that no way the two Russian men would show up and want to coach a pathetic bunch of girls like us.

But the next thing we knew, Felik and Grigor marched towards us.

"Gather around us, gals," said Felik, waving his arms at us until we formed a ring. "Don't worry about the last game. It was only a pre-season practice game. Me and Grigor, we're going to start from scratch with this team."

"What?" gasped Rosie, amazed.

"You mean, you're volunteering to coach us?" said Nora.

"After what you saw?" added Harper.

"I get it," Melissa said. "You guys are convicted criminals. The court's ordered you to coach a sports team for community service."

Felik smiled and aimed a finger at her.

"You're funny," he said. Then he turned and launched into a serious speech.

"It's nothing like that. It's much more simple," he said. His hands whizzed and sliced through the air, his grayish-blue eyes flashed with electricity.

"Look, baseball is a magnificent and mysterious game. Me and Grigor believe if you all can learn to play this great game in honor, with team unity, with respect for each other, and with joy - then you will be a great team and you will all- " He pointed to each one of us in turn. "You will all grow in character."

We sat there like stunned moose, staring at this weird duo in front of us. I'd heard coach pep-talks before. The way this guy spoke was so over-the-top that it was strangely hypnotizing.

"Felik, wait a sec," said Grigor for the first time in a quiet tone and pointed to Stefanie.

Stefanie had Margaret cornered by the fence. She ranted at her, demanding to be put back in the Blue Belles. Margaret was trying to calm her down.

Grigor took a few mighty strides to reach Stefanie. We watched him turn Stef's body sideways and learn down to talk quietly in her ear.

Nobody knows exactly what Grigor said to Stefanie Jenkins that day, but whatever it was, it didn't take long. One minute later, Stefanie (looking a bit weirded out) followed the huge coach back to the group. Felik went on with his speech.

"Me and Grigor are not going to lie to you," he said. I noticed that he always made sure to include his partner. "This team has a lot of work to do. And we're going to have to find ourselves an outfielder. But there's also a lot of talent here."

"Yeah?" snorted Stefanie.

Felik fixed Stefanie with his electric eyes and said, "Maybe I can see a lot of potential that you can't see. Potential the players themselves can't see yet. It will help if we all keep a positive attitude. Agreed?"

But the trouble was, no one did agree. No one was feeling positive. We all just stared at the ground.

"Is there a problem here?" asked Felik.

"A humongous problem," said Stefanie. "No one wants to play in this team, right?" She raised her eyebrows and appealed to the rest of us.

"Does everyone feel like this?" asked Felik.

No one said anything. Eventually, I figured someone should answer.

"Look...ummm," I mumbled. "The thing is...."

"Excuse me- I don't know any of your names yet," said Felik, who was incredibly polite, even to kids. "Are you...?"

"Darci Bloom," I said.